Schumer Predicted It: Dems Would Try to Impeach Every GOP President After Clinton

"My fears is that when a Republican wins the White House Democrats will demand payback."

By NTK Staff | 12.20.2017 @12:30pm

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) predicted in 1998, during the Clinton impeachment fight, that Democrats would use the articles of impeachment “as a routine tool to fight political battles” if a Republican were to occupy the White House.

Nadler, who would become chair of the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats retake the House in 2018, would be responsible for bringing forward the articles of impeachment against Trump.

When the House of Representatives voted on whether to impeach for President Bill Clinton, then-Representative Schumer (D-NY) made the following prediction:

“I expect history to show we have lowered the bar on impeachment so much. We have broken the seal on this extreme penalty so cavalierly that it will be used as a routine tool to fight political battles. My fears is that when a Republican wins the White House Democrats will demand payback.”

Now, following his appointment on Wednesday, Nadler will be the face of the Democrats’ effort to impeach another Republican president, Donald Trump.

“We are quite possibly headed into a major constitutional crisis … and we need our best constitutional lawyer and constitutional expert at the helm of the committee,” Nadler told The Hill in an interview on Tuesday. “And I’m widely recognized as such.”

The appointment of Nadler, who has already supported impeaching one Republican president and will likely attempt to impeach another, confirms Schumer’s prediction that Democrats would use the articles of impeachment, “as a routine tool to fight political battle.”

This begs the question: are Democrats’ calls to impeach President Trump simply rooted in an almost 20-year grudge against Republicans, and not in facts?